All settings other than texture resolution were loaded from the highest preset and left untouched for these screenshots. There are five degrees of quality, but only highest, medium, and lowest are shown here to make differences more obvious. The blanks between can easily be filled in.

The screenshots are shrunken to 1080p (but taken at 4K) for size reasons. For the 4K comparison, check the video below.

Wide View Textures

Highest

Medium

Lowest

This is the view from the singleplayer spawn point and the first thing seen when entering the game. Most textures are too distant to matter, but the quilted texture of the Guardian’s gloves and the scratches on her revolver do blur at lower settings. Shadows from a bright flash of light make the “highest” screenshot look more detailed than it actually is, but the real difference can be spotted on the girder at the top-center of the screen.

Control Panel

Highest

Medium

Lowest

Detailed lettering is amazingly sharp at higher resolutions: this is a game that was designed with 4K TVs in mind. The lettering becomes nearly illegible at “lowest,” and the concrete textures blur, but it’s the already low-res textures like those on the wall at the right that really lose all definition when they’re turned down. The leftmost rock loses texture detail as well, and is particularly noticeable between highest and lowest.

Enemy (Static)

Highest

Medium

Lowest

Luckily for us, there are a couple of enemies at the very beginning of the game that are baked into the level. The chestpiece and helmet show minute paint textures and pitting, still visible at medium but completely lost at lowest. The shoulder and neck segments of the armor go from mildly blurry to Quake-level textures with visible pixellation.

Lockers

Highest

Medium

Lowest

The most visible degradation here is in the numbers, but the red and blue labels barely lose any fidelity at all. Minor details like screwholes and chips in the metal blur but are less noticeable.

Banner

Highest

Medium

Lowest

This room isn’t strongly affected, except for the banner, which loses its woven texture. The containers -- like the crates and jug -- retain most of their texturing, so we’re mostly looking at differences in the banner weave and sharpness at the edges of the crossed swords.